Television programs are distributed to viewers by a variety of broadcasting methods. These methods include traditional analog broadcast television (National Television Systems committee or “NTSC” standard), the upcoming digital broadcast television (Advanced Television Systems Committee or “ATSC” standard), cable television (both analog and digital), satellite broadcasting (both analog and digital), as well as other methods. These methods allow channels of television content to be multiplexed and transmitted over a common transmission medium.
Channel numbers are typically used to identify the stream of television content offered by a content provider. Program guide information is typically transmitted along with the television content. The program guide information includes a set of channel definition parameters that define which portions of the transmitted television content are associated with the various channels, and also typically includes schedule information for display on users' televisions. The schedule information informs users what television programs are currently on, and what television programs will be shown in the near future.
While it is possible to classify programs being televised and present the user with schedule information which matches the users' preferences in television programs, the user does not always know or have the opportunity to view the classification criteria used to clarify the presented schedule information.